Ramana Maharshi Says If The Ego Vanishes, The Self Will Shine

[Guest guest]

12th September, 1947

 

A devotee who came here some time back and had been listening to the various

discussions in Bhagavan’s presence, approached Bhagavan this afternoon and

respectfully asked, “Swami, it is said that Ishwara who is the reflection of

the soul and appears as the thinking mind, has become jiva, the personal

soul, which is the reflection of the thinking faculty. What is the meaning

of this?â€

 

Bhagavan answered,

 

“The reflected consciousness of the Self (Atman) is called Ishwara, and

Ishwara reflected through the thinking faculty is called the jiva. That is

all.â€

 

The devotee: “That is all right, Swami, but what then is chidabhasa?â€

 

Bhagavan: “Chidabhasa is the feeling of the Self which appears as the

shining of the mind. The one becomes three, the three becomes five and the

five becomes many; that is, the pure Self (satva), which appears to be one,

becomes through contact, three (satva, rajas and tamas) and with those

three, the five elements come into existence, and with those five, the whole

Universe.

 

It is this which creates the illusion that the body is the Self. In terms of

the sky (akasa), it is explained as being divided into three categories, as

reflected in the soul: the boundless world of pure consciousness, the

boundless world of mental consciousness and the boundless world of matter

(chidakasa, chittakasa and bhutakasa). When Mind (chitta), is divided into

its three aspects, namely mind, intuition and ‘Maker of the I’ (manas,

buddhi and ahankara), it is called the inner instrument, or ‘antahkarana’.

 

Karanam means upakaranam. Legs, hands and other organs of the body are

called ‘bahyakarana’, or outer instruments, while the senses (indriyas)

which work inside the body are antahkaranas or inner instruments. That

feeling of the Self, or shining mind, which works with these inner

instruments, is said to be the personal soul, or jiva. When the mental

consciousness, which is a reflection of the tangible aspect of pure

consciousness, sees the world of matter, it is called mental world (mano

akasa), but when it sees the tangible aspect of pure consciousness, it is

called total consciousness (chinmaya). That is why it is said, ‘The mind is

the cause of both bondage and liberation for man (mana eva manushyanam

karanam bandha mokshayoh)’. That mind creates many illusions.â€

 

The questioner: “How will that illusion disappear?â€

 

Bhagavan: “If the secret truth mentioned above is ascertained by

Self-enquiry, the multiplicity resolves itself into five, the five into

three, and the three into one. Suppose you have a headache and you get rid

of it by taking some medicine. You then remain what you were originally. The

headache is like the illusion that the body is the Self; it disappears when

the medicine called Self-enquiry is administered.â€

 

The questioner: “Is it possible for all people to hold on to that path of

Self-enquiry?â€

 

Bhagavan: “It is true that it is only possible for mature minds, not for

immature ones. For the latter, repetition of a prayer or holy name under

one’s breath (japa), worship of images, breath-control (pranayama),

visualising a pillar of light (Jyotishtoma) and similar yogic and spiritual

and religious practices have been prescribed. By those practices, people

become mature and will then realize the Self through the path of

Self-enquiry. To remove the illusion of immature minds in regard to this

world, they have to be told that they are different from the body. It is

enough if you say, you are everything, all-pervading. The Ancients say that

those with immature minds should be told that they must know the

transcendent Seer through enquiry into the five elements and reject them by

the process of repeating, ‘Not this, not this (Neti, neti)’. After saying

this, they point out that just as gold ornaments are not different from

gold, so the elements are your own Self. Hence it must be said that this

world is real.

 

“People note the differences between the various types of ornaments, but

does the goldsmith recognise the difference? He only looks into the fineness

of the gold. In the same way, for the Realized Soul, the Jnani, everything

appears to be his own Self. Sankara’s method was also the same. Without

understanding this, some people call him a nihilist (mithyavadi), that is,

one who argues that the world is unreal. It is all meaningless talk. Just as

when you see a stone carved into the form of a dog and you realise that it

is only a stone, there is no dog for you; so also, if you see it only as a

dog without realizing that it is a stone, there is no stone for you. If you

are existent, everything is existent; if you are non-existent, there is

nothing existent in this world. If it is said that there is no dog, but

there is a stone, it does not mean that the dog ran away on your seeing the

stone.

 

There is a story about this. A man wanted to see the King’s palace, and so

started out. Now, there were two dogs carved out of stone, one on either

side of the palace gateway. The man standing at a distance took them for

real dogs and was afraid of going near them. A saint passing along that way

noticed this and took the man along with him, saying, ‘Sir, there is no need

to be afraid.’ When the man got near enough to see clearly, he saw that

there were no dogs, and what he had thought to be dogs, were just stone

carvings.

 

“In the same way, if you see the world, the Self will not be visible; if you

see the Self, the world will not be visible. A good Teacher (Guru) is like

that saint. A Realized Soul who knows the truth is aware of the fact that he

is not the body.

 

But there is one thing more. Unless one looks upon death as a thing that is

very near and might happen at any moment, one will not be aware of the Self.

This means that the ego must die, must vanish, along with the inherent

vasanas. If the ego vanishes thus, the Self will shine as the luminous

Self. Such

people will be on a high spiritual plane, free from births and deaths.†With

that Bhagavan stopped his discourse.

 

Sources:

1) Letters from Sri Ramanasramam by Suri Nagamma

2) http://suri-nagamma.blogspot.com/2007/08/letter-141.html

 

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